


very bad days

by ratbrain



Category: The Mechanisms (Band)
Genre: Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Jonny d'Ville and Nastya Rasputina are Siblings, Jonny has so many mental illnesses, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-11-25
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:54:14
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27705158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ratbrain/pseuds/ratbrain
Summary: Jonny has a Very Bad Day. Tim gets some advice from Nastya and comforts Jonny when he's done.
Relationships: Jonny d'Ville/Gunpowder Tim
Comments: 13
Kudos: 74





	very bad days

**Author's Note:**

> content warnings!!  
> \- mental health issues   
> \- implied suicide

Jonny D’Ville was, as the mechanisms quickly learned, a very unpredictable person. 

Of course, to some degree they all were. Immortality doesn’t exactly leave you mentally unscathed after all. But Jonny was...different. 

For example, today Jonny was having a Very Bad Day. 

It had started off normal enough, with Tim waking him up to ask him what he wanted for breakfast. Tim quickly realized that it was going to be a Very Bad Day when Jonny promptly flipped him off and answered with a string of insults only Jonny could think of. 

No one really knew or understood what exactly was happening to Jonny on a Very Bad Day, they just knew that it was best to leave him alone if you wanted your life intact. Not that it really mattered much, but regeneration could be a pain sometimes so it was best to avoid it when possible. At first they had tried talking him through the Very Bad Days, but they only got a few minutes at best before he went off on some unintelligible tangent and shot either them or himself simply to escape the conversation for a bit. 

Tim hated leaving Jonny alone on Very Bad Days. He knew it was for the best that he did, but he hated thinking that Jonny was suffering without him. But really, what could he do? When his Very Bad Days consisted of not wanting to get out of bed or talk to anyone, he could at least sit with him to make sure nothing too bad happened. But on Very Bad Angry days Jonny wanted nothing to do with anyone or anything. It hurt sometimes, in all honesty. Tim hated feeling so powerless, and although he understood why it always hurt him a bit that Jonny didn’t want him there. 

But even if he understood it that didn’t stop him from cringing everytime a shot rang out as he walked through the Aurora’s hallways. 

“Nastya, do you know what’s wrong with Jonny?” he asked, walking into the engine room in an attempt to distract himself. 

“Everything?” she answered, not looking up from the control panel she was working on. 

“I mean yeah, but like really?”

“Not sure. There’s not exactly much in the way of diagnoses, especially not where he’s from. Not even sure it would help much really. Your guess is as good as mine.”

“Yeah, I suppose.” Tim said, sitting down on the floor next to Nastya. 

“Look, my brother may be a mentally ill idiot, but you know he means well.”

“I know it’s just, why doesn’t he want me around?’

“What do you mean?”

“When he’s like this, why do I make it worse?’

“Tim,” she said, sitting up and throwing an arm around his shoulders, “ you don’t make it worse. Look, between you and me I honestly think the reason he doesn’t want to be with you is because he likes you so much.”

“What does that mean?”

“As someone who’s been with Jonny through many bad days, he’s not exactly the nicest person to be around. He doesn’t mean to, he just has a lot going on and everything is too much at once so he kind of snaps. He’s also killed me a lot of times that way, and said some insults we almost didn’t come back from. So I think when he doesn’t want you around it’s because he likes you too much to risk hurting you like that. He knows he’s fucked and he’s prone to saying insulting things he doesn’t mean so if there’s a chance you don’t have to hear them he doesn’t want you to.”

“Oh. I guess I didn’t think of it like that.”

“Well trust me, Jonny is definitely sickeningly in love with you, I wouldn’t worry much about that. He tells me literally all the time.”

“Wait really?” Tim asked. 

“Oh of course. He’s always here bothering me when I’m trying to work, all-” she put on a crude imitation of Jonny’s voice that had Tim in hysterics instantly, “I know he doesn’t like his eyes because they’re mechanical but they’re so  _ pretty _ Nastya and he’s so warm and soft and he’s so amazing.”

“Oh my god,” Tim said, “I can’t believe you’re telling me this.”

“Of course, embarrassing Jonny is one of my primary goals in life,” she said. “Do us both a favor and wait until he’s stable to mention it though. I don’t feel like cleaning my guts off the floor again.”

“Of course,” Tim said, leaving Nastya to her work.

Sometimes Jonny’s Bad Days were a few days long, and sometimes they went away in a few hours. This particular Bad Day was an example of the latter, and by that night Jonny was standing, red-eyed, at Tim’s door. 

Tim gently put his hand on Jonny’s back and guided him to bed. He laid him down and pulled the covers over him, slowly running his fingers through Jonny’s hair. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Tim asked softly. 

“S’ just a lot, all the time,” Jonny said quietly, squeezing his eyes shut in an attempt to block out everything. 

“I know, Jonny-love, I know. But you’re alright.”

“No m’ not.”

“Well, if you’re not alright now then you’ll be alright later, okay?”

“Don’t understand why you’re with me,” Jonny said after a few seconds of silence,”m’ annoying and mean.”

“You’re not annoying, Jonny. Not now, not ever, I can promise you that. And you’re not mean. You’ve got a lot going on, anyone would get a little frustrated.”

“Don’t wanna hurt you,” Jonny said, curling in on himself a bit.

“I know, but you haven’t. Well, excluding the times you’ve killed me but you know what I mean.”

“You’re so good Tim, I don’t wanna ruin you,” Jonny said before a few tears slipped down his face. 

“Oh, baby. Can I hold you?” Tim asked, and Jonny nodded silently and sat up, practically falling into Tim’s arms. Today must’ve been really bad, Tim thought, Jonny was so limp and tired against him. 

“I know you’re scared, but it’s okay. Listen to me, I love you very very much, I promise, okay? I know you think that you’re just selfish and mean but you aren’t, and you’re not going to “ruin” me. Even if that was your goal, I think the war and a few centuries worth of trauma have beaten you to it.”

That at least pulled a weak laugh out of Jonny, who pulled back and nodded. 

“Now, it’s been a very long day. How about I get you some food and a bath and we can go to sleep, would that be alright? Because if you want to be alone again I can do that.”

“Mmm, wanna go to sleep now,” Jonny slurred, leaning into Tim’s chest with his face buried in his neck. 

“I know Jonny-love, but you haven’t eaten all day and you know a bath will make you feel better.”

“But I’m tiiiiired,” Jonny whined, stretching so that his head was in Tim’s lap. 

“I know, but if you stay awake long enough for food and a bath I’ll get you those lemon squares that Marius made last week.”

“We still have those?” Jonny perked up at that. “I thought they were all gone?”

“I might have saved some in a very secret location for us in case of an emergency.”

“I love you so much.”

“And I you, now let’s get some food into you, yeah?”

Getting Jonny to eat was a hassle in and of itself. Not because he refused vehemently, although sometimes that was the case, but because he just got distracted so easily. Eventually when he’d eaten enough that could be considered healthy, Tim led him to the bathroom. He made sure the water wasn’t too hot as he filled the tub. 

“Do you want me to stay or wait outside?” Tim asked. He knew Jonny could be insecure, and he didn’t want to make him feel pressured into anything. 

By now Jonny looked much better. Sure his eyes were still a bit red and there was a clump of blood matted into his hair, but slowly but surely that lively look was coming back into his features. 

“Oh um. You can stay,” he said before muttering a series of words Tim couldn’t make out. 

“What was that?” Tim asked. 

“I didn’t say anything.”

“No, I’m pretty sure you did.”

“I said you could stay.”

“No I caught that, and I will. But you definitely said something after that. Something about your hair?”

“You’re hallucinating.”

“Probably.”

“Good because I didn’t say anything.”

“Okay.”

“I didn’t!”

“I believe you.”

“I didn’t say I like how you wash my hair because it feels nice.”

“Nope, those are definitely not words that came from your mouth.”

“Exactly.”

“Alright then,” Tim said, turning back to the tub to make sure it didn’t overflow. 

“Tim?” Jonny said. 

“Yes?”

“I like it when you wash my hair because it feels nice.”

“I had a feeling.”

“Oh shut up you bastard and wash my hair.”

And that was how they spent their night, with Jonny cuddling into Tim’s hand as he worked the shampoo through the knots of Jonny’s hair with gentle fingers. 

Jonny had Good Days, and he had Bad Days, and he had Very Bad Days. But Tim loved him through all of them. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> My whole account at this point is just "sir that's my emotional support immortal space pirate that I project my issues onto."
> 
> Also please if I missed any important content warnings let me know, I try to remember them, and the absolute last thing I want to do is be responsible for a negative reaction in someone that could have been prevented.


End file.
